Move or Copy files

Don't create subfolders - move or copy all files to the same folder
All files will be moved or copied into the same folder.  Moving same-named files into one folder with 'Overwrite existing files' enabled may result in data loss, so be careful.

 

Create subfolders - reproduce the source folder tree structure at the destination
This will create the full source folder structure in the destination after moving/copying and is particularly useful if you have same-named files.

Examples:
Source file: D:\MyFiles\Test\File1.txt
Destination folder: T:\Backups
Result: T:\Backups\MyFiles\Test\File1.txt
 

Source file: D:\MyFiles\Test\Sub\File2.txt
Destination folder: T:\Backups
Result: T:\Backups\MyFiles\Test\Sub\File2.txt

 

Create subfolders - reproduce part of the source folder tree structure ignoring prefix
This will preserve part of the source folder structure, excluding a specified prefix. This is useful to avoid creating unnecessarily long paths- it will only create the part of the path that is used to structure the files you are copying.
The 'Detect from marked files' button will automatically determine the common part of the path to exclude.

Examples:

Source file: D:\MyFiles\Test\File1.txt
Destination folder: T:\Backups

Prefix: \MyFiles\
Result: T:\Backups\Test\File1.txt

Source file: D:\MyFiles\Test\Sub\File2.txt
Destination folder: T:\Backups

Prefix: \MyFiles\Test\
Result: T:\Backups\Sub\File2.txt

Create subfolders - based on file metadata

This will create new subfolders for the destination files based on metadata from those files (i.e. The columns which were shown in the duplicate file view such as 'Width' or 'Album').

 

A template field is used to specify the layout of these new subfolders. The template can contain multiple subfolders, and multiple columns within the same folder name.  A column name is surrounded by square brackets [...].

To help with the column names you can click on the "+Column name" button to display a list of columns available. Clicking on a name will add it the the end of the template.

A default value to be used for missing metadata can be set (default: Unknown).

 

Examples:

Creating a folder structure based on song file information. This will create artist subfolders containing folders with the Year and Album name-

Template: [_Artist]\[_Year] [_Album]

Result: T:\Backups\U2\1993 Zooropa\Lemon.mp3

 

Creating folders for photos by camera model and photo size:

Template: [_Model]\[width]x[height]

Result: T:\Backups\NIKON D810\7360x4912\Photo.jpg

 

Notes:

A single subfolder name can't be longer than 248 characters long - be careful when adding too many fields, especially ones with a lot of data in them.

Any invalid characters in the new folder name will be replaced with an underscore (_)

Overwrite existing files - If moving or copying to a destination where the same file name exists, the target will be over-written when this setting is checked.  If not checked, the file will be moved or copied with a suffix such as "- Copy"

Via Windows shell - Files are processed via the Windows Explorer shell and will display the familiar progress graph and estimates. This option is usually faster depending on the system and drive.  If there are problems with this you can uncheck this option and Duplicate Cleaner will process the files directly.

Skip problem files - If checked, you won't be prompted by Windows if the process has trouble with a file. (Via Windows shell only)

Remove empty folders - After moving files, Duplicate Cleaner will remove any empty folders where files were removed. It will also remove empty sub folders.

Protect important system folders - Files will not be moved from important system folders. For a list of these folders, see Scan location tab

Clashes with other files in the set you are copying.  For example you are copying all files to the same folder and there are two files called thumbnail.jpg.

Clashes with existing files at the destination.  For example you are copying thumbnail.jpg and this file already exists at the destination.

Subfolder names that are too long.  Note that this checks the length of each subfolder within the entire path name. Each subfolder is limited in Windows to around 260 characters no matter how long the entire path is.